


what makes a desert beautiful

by llwydion



Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Other, because she is a strong independent woman who dont need no disney romantic interest, do we know why chirrut is blind?, i ship rey with no one!, imagine if rey was chirrut reincarnated, involving deserts, mysticism of a sort, the author's attempt to explain why chirrut is blind, these tags are getting out of hand
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-23
Updated: 2018-03-23
Packaged: 2019-04-06 21:24:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,137
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14065872
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/llwydion/pseuds/llwydion
Summary: There is a story they tell on Jedha. It is an old tale, and no one knows where it comes from.They say:One day, a young man walks out into the desert. He does not return, not for a long time, and when he does, he is changed, for he has lost his sight but has gained Sight; he sees the future, and he knows his own demise.That young man, he meets another young man, and as these things go, they fall in love, but their love is doomed, because the young man has seen the end of things for the both of them, and they fall in battle on a beach.But the Force, it loved them, and the desert, it loved him, and together they spin a new tale amongst the stars.





	what makes a desert beautiful

**Author's Note:**

> title from "The Little Prince": What makes a desert beautiful is that somewhere it hides a well.

One day, a young man walks into the desert and does not return.

Not for a very long time, at least, and when he does, he is changed. He has given up his sight for a greater understanding, and he knows the future, because he has Seen it.

He has always been strong with the Force, though his sight and age leave him unfit for further training as a Jedi, and so he enters into the service of the Temple as a Guardian of the Whills. He is well-liked by his peers and the younglings, partially because of his sense of duty, partially because of his elaborately planned-out pranks.

When the young ones gather around and ask him about how he lost his sight, he smiles and spins a tale of a wondrous cave, hidden away in the depths of the desert, filled with unimaginable treasures so bright that he looked at them and he could not look upon another thing again, so beautiful these treasures were.

(He does not tell them this:

One day, a young man was guided by the Force to walk into the desert, and when he returned, he was not the same, for he had seen his future, and it was one of blood and death and quiet sacrifice, and at the end of it all, a bright, blazing glow from the horizon.)

One day, this young man meets another man. This second man is brash and loud and angry, cynical and mistrustful of the world which has done so much to him. He is found half-dead in the street, and as they nurse him back to health he glares at them balefully until one day Chirrut decides to put a live bat in his room as a prank.

The yelp Baze makes is one he will deny to his dying day.

Before he knows it, this blind, mischevious imp has somehow managed to convince him into becoming a Guardian _and_ teach the young ones about the lightbow in his spare time. He calls it “that cheap Jedi mind trick”; Chirrut disagrees, because “he isn’t a Jedi, not really”, and “just because I wield a staff and can see without using my eyes doesn’t mean I can’t persuade you, Baze, you big softy”.

But this is not a story about them. Not really, at least. Because the future Chirrut sees comes to pass, and they find themselves on a beach in Scarif with Imperials firing on them and a lever to push, and soon enough, they are lying on the sand, staring up at the blue, blue sky as it turns slowly orange.

“I am one with the Force and the Force is with me.”

And the young man who one day walked into a desert knows no more.

* * *

There is a story they tell on Jedha. It is an old tale, and no one knows where it comes from.

They say:

One day, a young man walks out into the desert. He does not return, not for a long time, and when he does, he is changed, for he has lost his sight but has gained Sight; he sees the future, and he knows his own demise.

That young man, he meets another young man, and as these things go, they fall in love, but their love is doomed, because the young man has seen the end of things for the both of them, and they fall in battle on a beach.

But the Force, it loved them, and the desert, it loved him, and together they spin a new tale amongst the stars.

* * *

 

One day, a young girl’s parents walk into the desert and do not return. There is something about deserts and the people that go into them; if they return at all, they return changed, because the desert is greedy and hungry but also fair, and it takes and it takes but it also gives, gives in the form of vision and dreams and once, a young boy.

But this story is not about the boy. It is about the young girl whose parents left her in the desert, the young girl who grows up distrustful of the people around her, who hides her compassion and mercy until she is alone, because the first lesson the desert taught her was that everything changes, and the only constant you can trust is yourself.

One day, the girl walks out of the desert and onto a ship, and she goes on a grand adventure. Her name and those of her companions are plastered far and wide across the galaxy as the last vestiges of the First Order fade into darkness.

The first place she visits, after everything important is done, is Jedha. There is something about this desert planet that draws her in, and soon she stands before the ruins of the Holy City and feels sadness for what has been lost.

She places her hand on a patch of sand and croons out the words of an old, old benediction that springs from somewhere within her, past conscious thought and memory.

“I am one with the Force, and the Force is with me.”

She later learns the spot she knelt was where the threshold of the ancient Temple stood, before the Empire and its deadly planet-killer.

One day, the girl walks into the desert, and does not return. Not for a very long time, and her companions grow increasingly worried as the days pass. When she does return, she is changed. She has given up her life for the Jedi, but before that, she belonged to the desert, and the desert on Jedha croons with the recognition of that same soul in a different shell.

 _Hello, Rey_ , it seems to whisper. But the last word is strangely jumbled, and if she listens carefully she can make out another name.

_Hello, Chirrut._

* * *

 

There is a story they tell on Jakku. It is an old tale, and no one knows where it comes from.

They say:

A young woman is born in the desert from the ashes of a falling star, and the desert takes away her parents but returns her memories. And she knows what she is missing, and she travels the world in search of her other half. But human lives are short, and there are many people in this galaxy, so when she is old and wizened, she walks into the desert and does not come back.

But this is not where her story ends.

Listen to the desert wind at night. If you listen closely, you may be able to hear the young woman’s voice, searching for her lover. She will continue searching for a hundred centuries, a thousand millenia, past the death and rebirth of the universe, until they are reunited.

Listen, young one. She calls.

**Author's Note:**

> (ok but can you imagine a young chirrut being all like "what color should we dye baze's hair today?" and all the younglings cheering as he holds up like seven shades of garishly neon hair dye)


End file.
